Something You Should Know - Scams You Might Easily Fall For & Smalls Ways to Significantly Improve Your Health

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Starting point is 00:00:27 Download June's Journey now on Android or iOS. Today on Something You Should Know, do bees really die after they sting you? Can you really die from a black widow spider bite? Then scammers are always trying to get your money, but there are ways to protect yourself. For example... Anytime anybody asks you to pay for anything using a prepaid cash card, it's a scam.

Starting point is 00:00:51 No legitimate organization or government organization is ever going to ask you to pay for your debts with a cash card. It's just not how it works. Also, why the middle of the summer is the best time to clean your oven. And a lot of little things you can do that will have a very positive effect on your health and longevity, like drinking coffee. So I spoke to a world expert who studies coffee. He said, look, the broad consensus now is that drinking two or three cups of coffee a day is probably a good thing. The thing he did say was that it's best not to drink coffee first thing.

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Starting point is 00:02:03 Fascinating intel. The world's top experts. And practical advice you can use in your life. Today, Something You Should Know with Mike Carruthers. on my finger, and my finger swelled up to about three times the size. And so I was looking online about bee stings and found some interesting things about other summertime bugs as well that you might be interested in. First of all, I've always heard that if a bee stings you, that the bee will die shortly after that. It's not entirely false. Most species of bees and wasps, however, do not die after they sting someone. The only species that does is the honeybee. When a honeybee stings you, they leave the stinger and part of their abdomen behind,

Starting point is 00:02:55 and because of this rupture to their system, they die. You've probably heard that if you get bitten by a black widow spider you could die and it is true that black widows are venomous and their venom can cause muscle cramps chills fevers nausea all kinds of problems however if you seek professional care it's very unlikely you will die it has happened but usually it's too small children or elderly individuals people think I assume it's because of the name, that carpenter ants eat wood. But unlike termites, carpenter ants don't eat wood. Instead, they actually tunnel through it, leaving the wood debris behind outside their nests.

Starting point is 00:03:36 But they don't eat it. Have you heard that daddy long-legged spiders are poisonous? Well, they're not. They don't harm humans at all. In fact, daddy long-legged spiders are not even considered spiders. Their bodies are shaped much differently, and they only have one pair of eyes. They also don't have any fangs, which would make this poisonous myth even more of a myth. And you've probably heard, maybe it's because of cartoons, but if you wanted to lure a mouse into a mousetrap or something, that you should use cheese.

Starting point is 00:04:11 And while mice like cheese, they like other foods a lot better. Things like peanut butter, marshmallows, bacon, gumdrops, raisins, and sugary cereal will lure a mouse better than cheese. And that is something you should know. It's mind-boggling to think how many people are trying to scam you. Of course, scam artists are nothing new, but the Internet has certainly made the scam business a lot easier and more lucrative. And the landscape of scams keeps changing.

Starting point is 00:04:46 A few years ago, I spoke with Daniel Simons, a psychology professor at the University of Illinois, about this problem, and he is back with a new book and a fresh and up-to-date look at who's trying to scam you and the latest ways they are going about trying to do it. The book is called Nobody's Fool, why we get Taken In and What We Can Do About It. Hey, Daniel, welcome back. Thanks for having me on.

Starting point is 00:05:11 So I like that you're focusing this time more on not so much the big scams that we hear about, but the small scams, the things we're actually more likely to fall for because our guard's not up or the scammers are clever enough to make it look legit. And so an example of that kind of scam would be what? A simple example that we encounter all the time are phishing emails, right? And sometimes they get filtered out by our spam filters, but a lot of emails look like they're legitimate and can really easily trick us if we're busy or distracted or focusing too much on what we're trying to do into clicking

Starting point is 00:05:50 on something that we really shouldn't. And business email compromise, which is one of the most common sorts of scams around right now, is a massive and growing problem, billions of dollars involved, that once a scammer gets access to a corporate email system, they can start figuring out how payments are made. And they can start requesting personal identifying information from other people for identity theft, or they can start filing invoices and having the money sent to them. So it's a huge source of fraud. And it's one of the reasons why companies are so worried about phishing attempts and trying to prevent them. Well, I would imagine that one of the reasons that people get taken is because they think

Starting point is 00:06:30 they're too smart to be taken. Yeah, exactly. I think we all have this tendency to assume that only the most gullible people get taken in. And there are a lot of reasons for that, right? Some people are more gullible than others. Some people are maybe more likely to be deceived than others. But we can all be deceived given the right targeting, right? Some people are more gullible than others. Some people are maybe more likely to be deceived than others, but we can all be deceived given the right targeting, right? And I think one thing that is a danger is we can see in retrospect, oh, that con was so obvious. How could they have fallen for

Starting point is 00:06:56 that? But in the moment, under time pressure, when it's targeted just at us in the right ways so that it matches what we're expecting, what we're looking for, what we want. It doesn't raise all those sorts of red flags for us that we all can be taken in. How are we most likely to be taken in? And by that, I mean, like, is it from an email? Is it from somebody knocking on your door? Where are we most at risk and less on guard you know I think it really depends on the context right in in a work setting it might well be emails in and some cons are much more difficult to pull off than others and are more targeted phone calls can be effective there's a wide variety so some

Starting point is 00:07:41 some of these sorts of scams and targeted deceptions are very targeted. They're really focusing just on you as the victim, right? They're trying to get you based on what they know about you to fall for something. So they're appealing to all of your wishes and desires and expectations. Other frauds and scams aren't targeting you in particular. So if you get an email from a Nigerian prince offering you vast riches, if you just pay a little bit up front to help them recover the money, most people know that that's a scam. We've seen it. If you've been on the Internet for long enough, you've probably run across it. You probably know it's a scam, so you immediately delete it, which is exactly what the scammer wants. They want the

Starting point is 00:08:25 skeptics and the people who know about it to delete that email right away. They don't want you to respond. They want only the people who are most likely to reply and most likely to send their money eventually to be the ones who respond. So that's a fraud that is really common, still rakes in hundreds of millions of dollars a year in various forms, but is not one that's targeting most of us. It's targeting only a tiny subset of people, but it's really cheap to send out millions of emails to hit that small handful that will send their bank accounts. Yeah. See, I think what happens when I think about this is, so you see the Nigerian prince thing and you go, come on who's who's going to be taken by that so you kind of do this blanket I'm too smart to be taken and your guard falls down for

Starting point is 00:09:14 everything because you think well I wouldn't you know the Nigerian prince isn't going to get my money so neither will anybody else because I'm too smart to fall for that. Exactly. And one of the themes that comes up over and over again in these sorts of deceptions is that it's not just the most gullible people who get scammed. The people who get fooled are often the most accomplished in their fields. So if you look at, say, for example, the board of Theranos, the biotech company that folded after it was revealed to be, you know, not able to do what it claimed it could do. The board members were former cabinet secretaries, former generals. These were not dumb people. These are very smart people and world leaders in their disciplines, but they still fell for the pitch, right? And we can all be deceived when what's presented

Starting point is 00:10:04 is what we're looking for. Yeah, that's so true what you said, because so many of the scams seem obviously scams to me, but may not seem like scams to other people. Like I, I get these emails every once in a while, but fairly frequently, you know, invoices demand, you know, not demanding payment. But, you know, here's your invoice for thirty four thousand000. And I went, wait, what, what? Yeah, exactly. So I know that's not for me. I'm not going to pay a $34,000 invoice just because somebody sends it to me. But there must be some people who do pay it. There must be enough people who do to make it worthwhile. And for it to be worthwhile to the scammers, they have to spend all of their time

Starting point is 00:10:48 trying to reel in the people who are likely to fall for it. But yeah, that's a common thing. Lately, a form of text spam is, we couldn't deliver your package. And if people are ordering a lot online or having things delivered, especially during the pandemic, that looks completely natural. And if you don't look to see that the email didn't come from the postal service or UPS or Amazon or whoever you ordered from, you might click it by mistake.

Starting point is 00:11:14 And it's an attempt to fish, right? It's an attempt to take over your computer or to get access to your accounts. I mean, there's so many scams that are just so horrible, horrendous, but what's a scam right now of the ones that are out there? What's one that you particularly find bothersome? Another one that's really common right now, and I think is one of those that counts as especially kind of evil in a nasty way, is what's known as the kidnapping or injury scam, where the scammers will find out enough information about you and your family on social media

Starting point is 00:11:52 that they'll call up and pretend that your child or grandchild has been in a car accident or has been kidnapped and threaten that unless you send them cash right away, more harm will come. And they sound just credible enough because they know the kid's name, they know where they were, so they've done a little bit of targeting and tracking. And they put you under incredible time pressure and fear in order to try and take money from you. That really is evil. It's awful. It's preying on the fears and the goodwill of people. And those are going to get worse because it won't be all that long before you can have spoofing of people's voices. So it might actually sound like the call is coming from that kid.

Starting point is 00:12:38 And that makes it even more compelling. Another one that's a big scam, and it's still, it maybe has slowed a little bit, but is the call center scam. So a call center scam is, so what they'll do is call people who are immigrants in a country, for example, and say, pretend that they're the government organization for immigration, put them under huge pressure and try and get them to, for example, go out and buy cash cards and read the numbers over the phone to prevent them from being deported. They'll threaten and say that the cops are coming right now. Other variants of this are, you know, you owe taxes and you can get this resolved right away by sending money now. Those call center scams, and I should mention, anytime anybody asks you to pay for anything using a prepaid cash card, it's a scam. No legitimate organization or government organization is ever going to ask you to pay for anything using a prepaid cash card, it's a scam. No legitimate organization or

Starting point is 00:13:26 government organization is ever going to ask you to pay for your debts or to pay to preserve your immigration status with a cash card. It's just not how it works. And there also will never be that kind of time pressure. The cops are never going to be rushing to your door. But it's a common sort of scam. And it now often works by robocalling first. So they'll robocall out to millions of numbers and ask you to call back. And anybody who calls back has just selected themselves to be targeted. It's a little like extending your car's warranty call that everybody gets all the time. It's a robocall. Anybody who calls back is most likely to fall for the pitch. Is the extending. It's a robocall. Anybody who calls back is most likely to fall

Starting point is 00:14:05 for the pitch. Is the extending your car's warranty, we've been trying to get a hold of you, is that always a scam or are there actually people extending car warranties? There might be some legitimate businesses that are trying to extend your car's warranty, but a lot of those are scams. Well, I mean, I have been scammed, and fortunately nothing too serious, but I've been scammed, and so I'm very skeptical, maybe too skeptical of anybody who's trying to sell me something or give me something. I'm really skeptical that they're trying to get something from me.

Starting point is 00:14:46 Yeah, and I think that last caveat that you just added, the get something from me or get money from me, is the key, right? We can't be skeptical of every interaction we have with everybody else, right? That's an impossible way to live. We could never have a conversation because we have to assume that, for the most part, everybody we're talking to is trying to be truthful,

Starting point is 00:15:00 is interacting with us naturally. And most of the people we interact with day to day aren't scammers, right? They're not trying to get us. is interacting with us naturally. And most of the people we interact with day to day aren't scammers, right? They're not trying to get us. So going through life assuming that everybody is out to get you isn't necessarily the most sane way of living. But thinking about whenever you're in a position where you're being asked to spend money or to provide information,

Starting point is 00:15:23 those are times when we need to be extra careful. And I like to think of the way scamming works as a little bit like sort of a bullfighter, right? So, you know, a bullfighter or a matador will hold up that red cape, and the idea of the red cape is it's something that's really enticing to that bull. So if you're the potential mark, they're going to make something look really enticing to you so that you charge in without thinking and taking that second step to just say, okay, is this real? Is this legitimate? Is there something I should be asking myself here?

Starting point is 00:15:52 They want to make it so enticing that you just charge straight in. And the key is to figure out what are those cues that we use to find something really enticing? What are the sort of tendencies we have that make us act as efficiently as possible and not necessarily stop and ask ourselves, is that really true? Is that legitimate? I'm speaking with Daniel Simons and we're talking about scams and how not to get taken. Daniel is the author of a book called Nobody's Fool, why we get taken in and what we can do about it. This winter, take a trip to Tampa on Porter Airlines. Enjoy the warm Tampa Bay temperatures and warm Porter hospitality on your way there. All Porter fares include beer, wine, and snacks, and free fast-streaming Wi-Fi on planes with no middle seats.

Starting point is 00:16:42 And your Tampa Bay vacation includes good times, relaxation, and great Gulf Coast weather. Visit flyporter.com and actually enjoy economy. Metrolinks and Crosslinks are reminding everyone to be careful as Eglinton Crosstown LRT train testing is in progress. Please be alert as trains can pass at any time on the tracks remember to follow all traffic signals be careful along our tracks and only make left turns where it's safe to do so be alert be aware and stay safe so daniel when you analyze the scams that people pull on other people, what are some of the things that seem, the tactics, strategies that seem very effective? We often are fooled when people give us really precise information. And that's mostly good because generally if somebody can give you really precise details, that means they understand things really well. If you can make a really precise forecast to say it's going to rain at 2.30 p.m. this afternoon, that's more useful than say

Starting point is 00:17:50 it might rain today. But those looking to fool us will often use pseudo precision. They'll make things sound like they're really precise and count on us to draw the inference that they actually understand what they're talking about. So there's a common statement that 13.5% of your customers are early adopters of new technology. Where did that number come from? It's actually not based on any sort of data at all if you look carefully at what they're talking about. It's just based on assumptions.

Starting point is 00:18:22 But because somebody says 13.5, you take that as meaning they actually know something in depth. There's always been that advice that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. And that does seem to be pretty good advice. I mean, when the Nigerian prince singles you out to give you all this money, maybe that's a little too good to be true. Exactly. And it is great advice. The problem is figuring out what little too good to be true. Exactly. And it is great advice. The problem is figuring out what's too good and what's not. So what's too good for you or me, that Nigerian email promising hundreds of millions of dollars

Starting point is 00:18:56 if you just help them out a little bit to recover their lost fortune, that sounds too good to be true because it's like this outrageous amount of return on no investment. And most of us know to watch out for anything that guarantees huge returns from a tiny risk or no risk at all. But the more sophisticated the con, the more likely it is that you're going to find it to be just good enough rather than too good.

Starting point is 00:19:22 So here's an example. The classic Ponzi scheme, right, where people pay in and then the people who get in early get money out only because new investors are coming in and the new investment money is just being returned to the original investors. So it's a pyramid scheme format where there's never actually any real investment going on. The original Ponzi schemes promised outlandish returns, guaranteed 50% returns in six months, right, with no risk. And anybody who's ever invested knows that's not possible, right? Anytime somebody promises you massive returns and no risk,

Starting point is 00:19:58 you know it's too good to be true because every investment, the bigger the returns, probably the greater the risk, right? And so we all know that Ponzi scheme investments are too good to be true. But what about Bernie Madoff? Bernie Madoff was a Ponzi scheme. He ran a Ponzi scheme, but he didn't promise outlandish returns. In fact, his returns of his fraudulent investment fund underperformed the stock market over the time he was running his fraud. It did worse overall.

Starting point is 00:20:33 What was appealing about Madoff's investments wasn't the outlandish returns. It was the consistently stable returns with no risks. So he pretty much every year returned 8% to 12% with never a down year and almost never a down month. So it was safe, and that's what appealed to more knowledgeable investors than would fall for a typical Ponzi scheme. So really it's a question of what sounds too good to be true will vary based on your knowledge and your experience.

Starting point is 00:21:05 And something that sounds way too good to be true for a really sophisticated investor, and there were people who walked away from Madoff because they said, no, that can't be right, but was good enough for a lot of investors to lose all their money. You know, what's also interesting too is that we tend to have sympathy for people, you know, who are victims of other crimes but but when you get scammed there's this sense of you know it was your greed that was at fault here if you weren't so greedy you would have never been scammed and we don't have the sympathy for them as we might have for some other crime victim yeah and that does make it really hard right that there's always this

Starting point is 00:21:45 error when you know it was a con in retrospect to say, oh, you should have known better, or I should have known better. And many people who are scammed will say, oh, I should have known better. I shouldn't have fallen for that. I was suspicious, but I went ahead anyway. It's also why a lot of fraud is probably not reported because once people realize they've been taken, they're embarrassed because they think, oh, I should have seen that. It seems obvious in retrospect. And that's of course exactly what scammers count on. They count on you to be highly efficient in the moment

Starting point is 00:22:16 and not to question until later. And that's how a lot of these sorts of scams work. They put time pressure and commitment pressure on you right away so that you don't have time to think and question and be skeptical about it. Do you think people's antenna are up for this or that they just, they don't fall for scams because they just, I don't know, they just think, you know, this isn't my invoice, I'm not going to pay that. The Nigerian prince, come on, I've heard about that.

Starting point is 00:22:56 I mean, are people really paying attention to this or they're just kind of maneuvering between the obstacles here? It's a good question. I mean, I think a lot of us aren't paying attention enough of the time. And that's why phishing email scams work so effectively. A lot of people, you know, there've been a couple of massive field studies that have looked at whether or not people will respond to phishing attempts. And if it looks legitimate enough,

Starting point is 00:23:17 a high percentage of people will not only respond, but will give their password and account information or their user information. And that's because we get tons of emails all the time. So if you're in any organization, you're constantly getting official sounding emails, many of which are kind of empty of content but are asking you to do minor things or to check things.

Starting point is 00:23:37 And we just tend to dismiss those without looking at them very, very carefully. Of course, all of these scams know what our routine emails look like. They know what our routine habits are. And they capitalize on that. So even if people are looking out for it, you can still get fooled even if you're looking out for it.

Starting point is 00:23:56 Here's one example where I got fooled. And fortunately, I realized it almost immediately. So over the years, I've done a lot of media stuff. So I've been on television quite a bit, and I've got a bunch of videos that have me in them that sometimes end up all over social media. So I got a message from a friend on Facebook that said, hey, I saw you in this video and gave a link.

Starting point is 00:24:19 And that's a common thing that I have happen. I'll have somebody email me or send a message saying, hey, I saw you on this video and I didn't think about it for a second and I clicked the link, which I should never have done. So it was somebody whose account had been hacked and the link was almost certainly going to be trying to hack my account. And I realized it immediately and changed my passwords and it was okay. But whenever you get that sort of a link, you should always reach out to the person directly, not via the message that you got, and check on it.

Starting point is 00:24:51 In the same way that if your credit card company calls, you should just call back on the number on the back of your card and not trust the caller ID on your phone to be who they say they are. That sort of scam is really common. Most people would never have fallen for that, I saw you in a video scam. It's intended to catch people thinking, oh, I've done something embarrassing on video, and I should know about this. But that's a small percentage of people. And it's probably a smaller percentage of people who happen to be on video in the mass media

Starting point is 00:25:21 fairly often. So I just happened to fall for it because it sounded like the kinds of messages I've sometimes gotten. And most people would never fall for that one, because it's kind of obvious. It was only obvious to me a few minutes later, and I shouldn't have fallen for that. And that was what I was working on, researching scams and cons. Well, there you go. I mean, if anybody should be bulletproof to this, it would be you researching the topic and you fell for one. So clearly we all have to be on our guard. Daniel Simons has been my guest. He is a psychology professor at the University of Illinois, and his book is called Nobody's Fool, Why We Get Taken In and What We Can Do About It.

Starting point is 00:26:04 And there's a link to his book in the show notes. Thanks, Daniel. Thanks for coming on today. Thanks for having me on. It was a fun conversation. This is an ad for better help. Welcome to the world. Please read your personal owner's manual thoroughly. In it, you'll find simple instructions for how to interact with your fellow human beings and how to find happiness and peace of mind. Thank you and have a nice life. Unfortunately, life doesn't come with an owner's manual. That's why there's BetterHelp Online Therapy.

Starting point is 00:26:33 Connect with a credentialed therapist by phone, video, or online chat. Visit betterhelp.com to learn more. That's betterhelp.com. This episode is brought to you by Melissa and Doug. Wooden puzzles and building toys for problem solving and arts and crafts for creative thinking. Melissa and Doug makes toys that

Starting point is 00:26:52 help kids take on the world because the way they play today shapes who they become tomorrow. Melissa and Doug. The play is pretend. The skills are real. Look for Melissa and Doug wherever you shop for toys. When people think about being healthy, living a healthier life, it can all sound a bit daunting.

Starting point is 00:27:22 After all, I think most of us can probably think of several things we do or don't do that are not so healthy that we could do differently. However, there are actually a lot of little things that don't require overhauling your entire life that can have real substantial health benefits. That concept is the basis of a popular BBC podcast and book, both titled, Just One Thing, How Simple Changes Can Transform Your Life. The host of the podcast and author of the book is Dr. Michael Mosley. Hi, Michael. Welcome to Something You Should Know. Brilliant to be with you.

Starting point is 00:27:56 So briefly explain the concept here, and then we can dive into some specific things people can start doing. But what's your premise here? The overall message is there are some simple things you can do in your life which will have a big effect on your mental and physical health. They're not that demanding. They are science-based, and why not give it a go? And the other thing I would say is that what we know about habits is if they're going to stick, then you have to go on sort of, you know, repeating them on a fairly regular basis for at least a month or so.

Starting point is 00:28:33 So these things that I'm going to recommend and we're going to talk about are really quite simple to do. But the great thing about them is they also have stickability, I hope. Yeah, well, because that's the key, right? You can't do one of these once and expect much to happen. No, not at all. What you might do is you might do it a few times and decide this one's not for me and you move on to something else. But yeah, what I do ask you is persistence. Stick to it, give it a go. You should see within a relatively short period of time some benefit. Hopefully you'll enjoy them as well.

Starting point is 00:29:11 So kick it off with one of them, one that you like or one that's easy to explain. And just start with one. Let's dive in somewhere. Absolutely. So why not singing? The great thing about singing is you don't have to be any good. You've just got to be enthusiastic. There's a lot of science behind singing. I tend to do it in the shower

Starting point is 00:29:25 because it resonates well there. I'm not sure my wife is keen, but a while ago I took part in a research project where we measured blood levels of something called endocannabinoids. These are cannabis-like substances that are produced in the blood when you're doing certain things like exercising, but it also turns out when you're singing. And what they do is they give you a real boost. So what we did is I got a group of people together. I was part of it. We sang for half an hour, we exercised for half an hour, and we read a manual on how to repair dishwashers for half an hour. And the idea that was the control group. And what we found is that the singing gave the biggest boost to the endocannabinoids. And that's probably why people

Starting point is 00:30:10 sort of really enjoy it. And those, the chemicals that you just mentioned, do what exactly? They're sort of cannabis-like substances. And what they do is they kind of give you a feel good. They make you feel good. So for for a long time people have said that exercise leads to endorphins now they think it's actually much more to do with these endocannabinoids so these substances as i said they go to the brain they make you feel good and it turns out that singing is a very good way of releasing them particularly if you're singing with other people but when you just sing solo, then that also releases these substances. So it's a quick and easy way to make yourself feel good.

Starting point is 00:30:51 So talk about deep breaths, because I think everybody's heard and it's been suggested, you know, take a deep breath, just take a deep breath. Well, why? What's the point? Sure. So the idea here is that you actually slow your breathing so one of the forms of breathing that I strongly recommend to people is called four to four and here you breathe in through your nose to account of four you hold it for two and then you breathe out through your mouth to a kind of four if we do it just now, let's give it a go. Hold it and then and if you do that for about a minute or so, what happens is your heart rate slows down.

Starting point is 00:31:34 You're actually switching on part of your system, which is called the parasympathetic system. And it's kind of like the brake. So your adrenaline is the sympathetic system that makes you go rev, rev, rev, whereas this kind of calms everything down. So when you do this form of slow, deep breathing, that slows your heart rate, it brings your blood pressure down, but it also induces this feeling of calm. So if you do it when you're feeling a bit stressed, brilliant. Also, middle of the night, I typically wake up at about three in the morning, lots of thoughts racing through my mind. And when I do this 4-2-4 breathing, then that just slows everything down. The heart rate drops and that is a sort of trigger for going back to sleep. It's brilliantly effective, really quite life changing.

Starting point is 00:32:22 You know, I do that too. I wake up at four in the morning and do what you do at three, but it's the same thing. Yeah, that your mind just pops awake and all of a sudden things start just pouring through it. Absolutely. It's really, really annoying, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. And frightening sometimes, like I was just asleep and now I'm thinking about everything. Absolutely. So one of the techniques, I don't know whether you do it as well, is that if within about five or six minutes, maybe 10 minutes, I haven't gone back to sleep and the breathing isn't doing it, then I get out of bed. I go and find a quiet corner. I continue

Starting point is 00:32:59 doing the slow breathing. I read a dull book. I listen to some music until I start to feel sleepy again and then I go back to bed so otherwise you can just lie in bed feeling restless worrying about stuff and that's the worst thing you can do because what you need to do is associate bed with sleep and sex and nothing else so that's one of the top tips I learned from sleep experts it's all about associating your bed with calm, with peace, not with stimulation. And so, as I said, if you're lying there thinking all sorts of crazy thoughts at three or four in the morning, then just get out of bed, find a retreat, come back. What do you mean by think yourself stronger? How does that work?

Starting point is 00:33:41 Sure. So this is a slightly stranger one but the idea here and there's been surprising number of studies looking into it is that you sort of almost rehearse doing something so for example a lot of them athletes they rehearse you know not only they not only physically rehearse going out of the block but they mentally rehearse it. And you see sometimes tennis players, they're sort of mentally rehearsing where they're going to hit the ball. And it turns out that when you do that, then what that does is it encourages muscle cells,

Starting point is 00:34:17 if you like, to become more active. And it's a good way of really just kind of preparing yourself mentally and also physically for whatever it is you're about to do, whether it is trying to score a goal or whatever it might be. So it's been a big part of the psychology and the physiology of sport exercises. But it's that sense of kind of getting your brain ready for whatever it is you're about to do. And that will prepare your body. Because one of the things, I don't know if you're aware of it, but your brain is protecting you quite often from really pushing yourself too hard. And it puts on this sort of break. And sometimes you're actually quite capable of going a bit further, a bit longer. And

Starting point is 00:35:02 mentally rehearsing seems to help that. So this whole idea of exercise, I think, baffles people because you have some ideas on how to do simple exercise. But I think there's this perception that exercise has to be long, it has to be hard, and it has to go on for a long, long time over months and months and months before much happens. Absolutely. And I think that is a myth. I have been making films and documentaries about exercise for a while now. I'm not personally a huge fan of exercise in the sense I don't love running. I do it because I think it's good for me, but I don't love it. What I do like doing first thing in the morning is I do what's called intelligent exercises. I do them with my wife and I do them

Starting point is 00:35:50 first thing because I know if I don't do them, then I'm never going to do them. And these are really the, um, the squat and the press up, or do you call them pushups or press ups? Pushups. Okay. So these are the pushupsups and the squat and they're a really good way of doing resistance exercise you can you know just do 5 10 20 30 build up slowly don't take very long I spend less than three or four minutes doing them in the morning but they're a great way of building muscle but beyond that there's been research which shows that the sort of upward and downward movement you do when you're doing a squat is a really great

Starting point is 00:36:29 way of increasing blood flow to the brain and that in turn triggers the release in the brain of a substance called BDNF brain derived neurotrophic factor and that seems to be kind of really like a fertilizer for the brain helps to support existing brain cells and encourage the growth of new ones. So by doing these simple exercises, the press up and the squat, you're not only building muscle, which is obviously a good thing, but you're also, you know, boosting the release of this hormone in the brain, which is also good for the brain. So two for one, and it only takes a few minutes first thing in the morning. But you don't have to do very many of them in order to

Starting point is 00:37:09 get benefit. So you talk about drinking water and this is another one of those things where people there's conflicting advice that you have to drink you know just tons of water and then people say well but no but the water in the food counts too and then and so people don't, I like how much water and what's, what's the benefit. So the simplest advice I have is try to drink a large glass of water with every meal. So with breakfast, with lunch, and with your evening meal, that is quite a simple thing to remember to do. And you can have it fizzy, you can have it with ice, you can have it with lemon, it doesn't really matter. Personally, I like tap water. I'm quite happy with that. Some people, you know, want expensive bottled waters. But the reason you want to do it, particularly when you get older,

Starting point is 00:37:52 is that our thirst is not a terribly reliable test of whether we are hydrated or not. That actually, the reason you want to drink water is obviously to rehydrate you. Also, if you have it with a meal, there's evidence that it kind of fills you up so you eat less. But it's also really important for the brain that you remain properly hydrated. And there have been lots of studies which have shown that even a sort of 5% dehydration, you perform worse physically and mentally. So simple thing, glass of water with every meal. And the other thing I'd say is one way of telling if you're properly hydrated or not is, you know, you look at the color of your urine. So it should be a sort of pale straw-like color. One of your recommendations is to take an early morning walk and you know I think most people know that walking is you know that's good exercise but why an early morning walk? in the morning light, then the amount of light that your eyes, your brain, if you like, are

Starting point is 00:39:05 exposed to is multiple times greater indoors. We don't really appreciate it because our eyes are very good at adjusting, but it can be 10 times as bright outdoors as indoors. So one of the reasons you want to go out first in the morning is it's a great way of resetting your internal clock, that your circadian rhythms, they're driven mainly by light so when you go out first thing that will actually sort of reset everything so you'll sleep better that night when you go out if you can go out in green spaces that is a particularly good thing because we know there are lots of benefits to be to spending time in nature and indeed we know that if you

Starting point is 00:39:42 can you know beside if I have a wood near me and I like going for a walk through the woods and we know the trees produce these scents which are good for your immune system and then when you're walking try to make it brisk I say you should aim for around a hundred steps a minute if you can you know if you can't fine but something like that is a hundred steps a minute and one good way something like that is 100 steps a minute. And one good way to do that is you put some headphones on with a bit of music, which has a beat of around 100. And, you know, pace yourself like that. I often go for a walk with my wife. She loves walking fast,

Starting point is 00:40:18 so she kind of speeds me up. So if you can go for a walk with other people, that's great. But simply walking is a remarkably good way of, as I said, resetting that internal clock, setting you up for the day, and you get some exercise as well. It's not going to, you know, it's not as good, if you like, as going for a cycle or run or something where you get a sweat. But it's certainly a great deal better than, you know, sitting on your bottom. Right. Because we hear sitting is the new smoking. Absolutely. And we know from multiple studies that sitting around, which obviously we do,

Starting point is 00:40:54 because we have computers, a lot of our lives are tied to laptops, to our smartphones or whatever. We know that spending long periods of time sitting is really bad for your blood pressure very bad for your blood sugar levels and things like that so another advantage of drinking all that water is you'll make more trips to the toilet there's another plus in that you know so you'll at least get up and go for a short walk then. And if you can fit in a few squats or a few press-ups after you've been to Lu, that's a good idea as well. So one of the things I tell people is try to anchor a new habit to something you're already doing.

Starting point is 00:41:36 One of the odd ones in here that I thought was interesting was stand on one leg. Like, how much good could that possibly do no I agree when I first came across it I was somewhat surprised but it turns out that falling over is the second commonest cause of accidental death worldwide after road traffic accidents and the thing about you know exercise is we know about the push-up and we know about the benefits of things like going for a run, aerobic fitness, resistance exercise, but not many people consider their balance. And balance is really, really important, particularly when you get older. And there is

Starting point is 00:42:17 some evidence because we spend so much time on our bottoms these days that our sense of balance is getting worse. Ideally, you should be able to manage about 30 seconds while standing on one leg. And you'll also find if you try it, if you close your eyes, you're probably only going to manage about 10 seconds. But 30 seconds is a good goal to aim at. So what I suggest to people is they could do Tai Chi, they could try yoga, or they could simply do what I do, which is try doing it while you're brushing your teeth in the morning. So you're supposed to brush your teeth for two minutes. So what I do is I stand on one leg for 30 seconds, I then stand on the other leg for 30 seconds and then back again. And

Starting point is 00:42:59 so in two minutes, I get a good sort of, you know know my teeth are nice and sparkly clean at the end of that but I'm also getting a good you know workout in terms of my balance so talk about coffee because you know it's been back and forth over the years it's good for you it's bad for you a little is okay too much is too much what's the latest and how do we know this is true? Okay, absolutely. So I spoke to a kind of world expert who studies coffee, and he said, look, the broad consensus now is that for most people, drinking two or three cups of coffee a day is probably a good thing. The caffeine seems to be, you know, it gets you going,

Starting point is 00:43:43 but also there is quite a lot of evidence that drinking coffee also improves things like mood. The thing he did say, which slightly surprised me, was that it's best not to drink coffee first thing. You ought to wait for about an hour, at least until you are eating your breakfast. He said the reason for that is because when you first wake up, your body is producing lots of cortisol, the stress hormone. It's called the CAR response, the cortisol arousal response. And that's basically to get your body going. And it starts about an hour or so before you wake up, and it sort of peaks around the time you wake up. So if you pour coffee straight on top of what is already a big surge in

Starting point is 00:44:27 your stress hormones, then the risk is that you'll just, you know, feel a bit stressy, it'll raise your blood pressure and things like that. Better basically to wait until the cortisol levels start to drop, which is about an hour after you wake up. And then that will give you the sort of benefits of the caffeine hit, but without pushing you over the top and this guy had also done studies showing that If you drink the coffee before breakfast then that leads to a big surge in your blood sugar levels Whereas if you have it with breakfast, you don't get that effect What one or two more here?

Starting point is 00:45:01 What one we haven't talked about that you think is either surprising or that people find most interesting. I think that eccentric exercise is a great sort of slightly weird one. You would imagine, for example, that when you walk up a set of stairs, then that is, you know, hard work and therefore more beneficial than walking down a set of stairs but it turns out that's not the case i mean a lot of people have experienced the thing you you walk up a hill a mountain and then we go down again it feels much much harder and you assume that's because you've had to walk up but actually it turns out and somebody actually did a study where they got people to either walk up six flights of stairs or down. And they did that for several weeks. It was the people going down who got the most benefit, both in terms of modest weight loss, but also in terms of impact on the bones,

Starting point is 00:45:56 and in terms of the sort of calories burnt. And that's because your body is sort of protecting you when you're going down. So if you're going to use the stairs, make sure you go up and down. And the same is true if you decide to follow my advice and do a few press-ups and squats. Really slow the downward movement. But that's what's called the eccentric phase. And that is kind of where most of the benefit is going to come from. Lastly, I think everybody's heard the advice of you need to take a break, that you need to take more breaks throughout the day. But why? What's the science say about that?

Starting point is 00:46:32 So the science here is pretty unambiguous, again, that we do better if we have these break moments. The studies have shown that improved productivity it also improves concentration and so ideally it's kind of every 45 minutes or so you get up you wander around for maybe a minute or two and then you go back if you do that you're doing two things one it gives your brain a bit of a rest and allows you to refocus but also you're getting the benefits of not sitting continuously, which are very, very bad for us. So I find that quite difficult to do because when I get obsessed with something,

Starting point is 00:47:12 when I'm focused, when I'm writing something, I find it quite difficult to break away. But since I started exploring the science behind this, I found it very beneficial. So I set my alarm and I do get up and I wander around. There's also something, a sort of try and rest your eyes every so often. If you're focused on the screen, you've got yourself hunched over it, then look away, defocus, look at an object which is far off. It just gives your

Starting point is 00:47:38 eyes a bit of a rest. So yeah, give yourself a break every so often and your body will really thank you for it. Well, this is not only fun. I mean, I think it's empowering to hear that there are so many little things that people can do that add up over time to really make a difference in your health. I've been speaking with Dr. Michael Mosley. He is host of the popular podcast called Just One Thing and author of the book, Just One Thing, How Simple Changes Can Transform Your Life. And there's a link to the podcast and to the book in the show notes for this episode. Appreciate it.

Starting point is 00:48:13 Thanks, Michael. Thank you very much. Bye. If you're not doing anything and you haven't cleaned your oven lately, you might want to do that soon. According to the Appliance Handbook for Women, simple enough even men can understand, says people often make the mistake of cleaning their oven right before Thanksgiving or some other big event. Ovens are most likely to fail during or right after that self-cleaning cycle because of the very high temperatures involved.

Starting point is 00:48:46 It's not easy getting an oven fixed around the holidays or on a weekend when repair shops and part distributors are busy or closed. Weekdays in the summer are probably the best time to clean your oven because if something goes wrong, you can always fire up the grill. And that is something you should know. I bet you know somebody who would enjoy this episode as much as you did, so you'd be doing them a favor, you'd be doing us a favor, if you would just tell them about this show and send them the link and tell them to listen. I'm Mike Carruthers. Thanks for listening today to Something You Should Know. Welcome to the small town of Chinook,

Starting point is 00:49:28 where faith runs deep and secrets run deeper. In this new thriller, religion and crime collide when a gruesome murder rocks the isolated Montana community. Everyone is quick to point their fingers at a drug-addicted teenager, but local deputy Ruth Vogel isn't convinced. She suspects connections to a powerful religious group. Enter federal agent V.B. Loro, who has been investigating a local church

Starting point is 00:49:52 for possible criminal activity. The pair form an unlikely partnership to catch the killer, unearthing secrets that leave Ruth torn between her duty to the law, her religious convictions, and her very own family. But something more sinister than murder is afoot,

Starting point is 00:50:07 and someone is watching Ruth. Chinook. Starring Kelly Marie Tran and Sanaa Lathan. Listen to Chinook wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, this is Rob Benedict. And I am Richard Spate. We were both on a little show you might know called Supernatural. It had a pretty good run, 15 seasons, 327 episodes.

Starting point is 00:50:33 And though we have seen, of course, every episode many times, we figured, hey, now that we're wrapped, let's watch it all again. And we can't do that alone. So we're inviting the cast and crew that made the show along for the ride. We've got writers, producers, composers, directors, and we'll of course have some actors on as well, including some certain guys that played some certain pretty iconic brothers. It was kind of a little bit of a left field choice in the best way possible.

Starting point is 00:51:01 The note from Kripke was, he's great, we love him, but we're looking for like a really intelligent Duchovny type. With 15 seasons to explore, it's going to be the road trip of several lifetimes, so please join us and subscribe to Supernatural then and now.

Something You Should Know - Scams You Might Easily Fall For & Smalls Ways to Significantly Improve Your Health

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